The Winter Wreath

I love love  love the Nate Berkus Show.  Nate mentioned this decorating blog on the show one day and it immediately  became a favourite.  I then started searching for other diy blogs and sites and came  across instructions for these beautiful luminaries.  The best part was that I had now learned the secret to wintery glitter!  Oh the fun I can have now!!!

I love my Christmas Wreath, but the holiday season is over, and it had to go.  My front door needs a paint job but that isn't about to happen any time soon, so a winter wreath was in order. Of course, all that's available in the stores are Christmassy wreaths.  I had a little snowman thingy that I bought at the Dollar Store years ago. He's cute (boring), but he's small (boring) and old (boring). Did I mention, he's boring? 

I searched online for an example (idea) and there just wasn't anything that was Winter and not Christmas.  So I guess I'll have to just do it myself completely from scratch.  How hard can that be?

I think blue and silver reads winter as does glitter!  But oh yeah! I just discovered that Epsom salt is the secret to crafting snow and ice!  So off to Michaels I go to be inspired.  After wandering around the store for an hour and shifting through all the Christmas sale aisles to find items that are winter and not holiday, I settled on a grapevine twig wreath frame ($4.99) 3 sprigs of "frozen" berries (75% off made them 33 cents each!) and some very icy looking white ribbon (50% off which made it $1.99) and then buried way down in the bottom of a bin on the bottom shelf was the cutest little cardinal (reduced to just 50cents!) Picture me, on my knees on the floor digging through the bin and squealing with delight when I found that little beauty. These little things excite me!

Winter for me is bare trees, snow, ice, red berries and beautiful red cardinals.  We have a cardinal that visits our yard and sings just for DH so I now have the perfect ingredients for the perfect winter wreath for our front door.  The hardest part of this project was keeping it simple and knowing when to stop!  Otherwise, it was just a matter of plugging in the glue gun, securing the berries, placing the birdy and then the fun part! I held the wreath up, and tried to imagine where the snow would collect if it was outside.  Luckily my front door is protected from the elements.  Ok, I admit I called in my beautiful daughter for her opinion (because I second guess everything at least 100 times!) and she agreed with my original thoughts.  Of course she will tell you she guided me the entire way but the truth is, she validated my idea.  But I digress....

So I got out my white glue, globed it on the parts I wanted snow covered, sprinkled liberal amounts of Epsom salt over the glue, gave the wreath a gentle shake, and voila!  A beautiful winter wreath!

Isn't it pretty?!

Tips (or things I learned the hard way)

Put newspaper under your wreath to collect the loose bits of Epsom salt, otherwise, you'll be vacuuming salt for days.  Luckily I picked citrus scented salt so now my vacuum has a deodorizing effect.